Fuel Smarts

Solid waste operator Republic Services Inc. announced an agreement to recover landfill gas from its North Shelby Landfill in Millington, Tenn., for multiple uses -- including as a vehicle fuel for its growing natural gas-powered fleet.

The agreement with Clean Energy Renewable Fuels is the second of its kind for Republic. The first, at Republic's Sauk Trails Landfill in Canton, Mich., is expected to come online next month.

Clean Energy Renewable Fuels will build the high-Btu plant to process landfill gas, a natural byproduct of decomposition, and inject it into the U.S. natural gas network. The gas may be compressed and distributed for a variety of different uses, including vehicle fuel and as renewable power for other industrial use customers.

During the first year of operation, the plant is anticipated to produce approximately 4 million diesel gallon equivalents of renewable natural gas fuel. If the landfill gas is used to fuel trucks, it could fuel about 260 trucks for a year. Production is expected to steadily increase to more than 5.7 million diesel gallon equivalents annually during the first 10 years of operations. Production is expected to begin in late 2013.